In the true story "Farewell to Manzanar" we learn of a young girl's life as she grows up during World War II in a Japanese internment camp. Along with her family and ten thousand other Japanese; we see how, as a child, these conditions forced to shape and mold her life. This book does not directly place blame or hatred onto those persons or conditions which had forced her to endure hardship, but rather shows us through her eyes how these experiences have held value she has been able to grow from.

Jeanne Wakatsuki was just a seven year old growing up in Ocean Park, California when her whole life was about to change. Everything seemed to be going well, her father owning two fishing boats, and they lived in a large house with a large dining table which was located in an entirely non-Japanese neighborhood. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese was the moment Jeanne's life was critically altered. This started WWII and all Japanese were seen as possible threats to the nations safety. It is not difficult to see, but difficult to justify this view, and therefore Jeanne Wakatsuki, just a child, was now seen as a monster. Her father was immediately arrested and taken away, being accused with furnishing oil to Japanese subs off the coast. And now, Jeanne left without a father, her mother was trapped with the burden of Jeanne's rapidly aging grandmother and her nine brothers and sisters. Too young to understand, Jeanne did not know why or where her father had been taken. But she did know that one very important part of her was gone.

Jeanne's father was a very strong, military-like, proud, arrogant, and dignified man. He was the one who was always in control, and made all the decisions for the family. He grew up in Japan, but left at the age of seventeen, headed for work in Hawaii, and never again went back. Leaving his own family behind and never contacting them ever again. But now it was time for Jeanne's family to do something. They found refuge at Terminal Island, a place where many Japanese families live either in some transition stage or for permanent residents. Jeanne was terrified. " It was the first time I had lived among other Japanese, or gone to school with them, and I was terrified all the time." Her father, as a way of keeping his children in line, told them, "I'm going to sell you to the Chinaman." So when Jeanne saw all these Japanese kids she assumed she was being sold. They were soon given 48 hours to find a new place to stay. Again they found refuge in a minority ghetto in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. But then the government issued Executive Order 9066 which gave the War Dept. power to define military areas in the western states. Anyone who could possibly threaten the war effort (Japanese) were going to be transported to internment camps. As Jeanne boarded the Greyhound bus someone tied a number tag to her collar and one to her duffel bag. So, for now on all families had numbers to which they could be identified. No longer people, but animals hearded off to some unknown place. This was to be their destiny for the rest of the war, and long after.

Being a child, Jeanne was too young to comprehend what all this really meant. She knew that her dad was away and her family was moving a lot. At first, for Jeanne this seemed exciting, like an adventure, since she had never been outside of L.A. before. Jeanne is a Nissei, a natural born citizen of the United States. But, again this really didn't mean much to her. What could she do, and what could she know? Up to this point her life had been relatively simple. As a 7-yr. old, one doesn't really know much about life yet. This was soon to change for her, as she is now being forced into a world guarded behind barbed wire.

Manzanar, located near Lone Pine, California was the camp Jeanne's family, kept together only by an effort made by Jeanne's mother, was assigned to. The conditions were raw, cold, windy and unfriendly. In a sense a metaphor for Jeanne, their...

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL

...The Unimaginable: The life in Japanese Americans InternmentCamps
By
OUTLINE
Introduction
Thesis: Even though the Japanese Americans were able to adapt to their new environment, the
Japanese American internmentcamps robbed the evacuees of their basic rights.
Background
I. Japanese Americans adapted to their new environment by forming communities at the
camps.
A. One of the first actions that evacuees took is establishing school system.
B. The evacuees established self-government among themselves.
C. The evacuees produced own food and other products for themselves.
II. The evacuees adapted to their new environment by creating means of joy and
happiness.
A. The internees played games and sports.
B. The internees made use of arts and music to create joy.
C. The internees, especially women, enjoyed the freedom from having to do
housework.
D. The internees continued with what they did outside the barbed wire.
III. The internees had no privacy and were always reminded of the fact that they are being
controlled and supervised.
A. Everywhere, they are surrounded by factors that force them to acknowledge the fact
that they are being interned such as barbed wire and soldiers.
B. The lack of privacy can be shown during meal time.
C. The structure of the...

...(Granada) Colorado this camp had a peak population of 7,318 Japanese Americans mainly from California. This camp opened on August 24th, 1942 and closed on October 15th, 1945; within this time there were 120 deaths, and 31 volunteers to fight in the war. Conditions in this camp were primitive; there was no insulation or furniture in the barracks, and they were heated through coal-burning stoves. The Granada center became the tenth largest city in Colorado and had its own hospital, post office, schools, and stores.
Gila River
Out of all the Japaneseinternmentcamps the Gila River Relocation Camp was the most laidback and sympathetic to the evacuees, there was only one watchtower and the barbed-wire fences were removed early on. It was opened on July 20th, 1942 and closed on November 10th, 1945 and had a population of 13,348 at its peak. Camp administrators were so sympathetic to the thousands of Japanese Americans in this camp that they were lenient in giving them access to Phoenix and recreational activities in the surrounding areas, which was very rare. Gila River was a showplace compared to the other camps, with rougher conditions. Eleanor Roosevelt made a surprise visit in 1943 to look into allegations of special treatment to the evacuees.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center
Opening on August...

...Clay Baggett
Race and Ethnicity
JapaneseInternmentCamps of World War II
To be the enemy, or not to be the enemy, that is the question. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans believed that the Japanese Americans, also called Nikkei, were disloyal and associated with the enemy. There were rumors that they exchanged military information and had hidden connections. None of these claims were ever proven. The U.S. government became increasingly paranoid about this new problem and demanded action. On Thursday, February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066, which called for an evacuation of Japanese Americans on the west coast with the excuse of a “military necessity.” The government’s hasty enforcement of Executive Order 9066 in reaction to public hysteria, not only violated the rights of Japanese Americans, but also resulted in unnecessary effort and attention towards the internmentcamps.
The United States government had no right to intern Japanese Americans because of their ethnic background. People argued that the Japanese aliens in the United States posed as a threat but in reality “more than two-thirds of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States” (Ross). The Nikkei had the same rights as any other American...

...Was Japanese-Canadian InternmentDuring WW2 Fair?
Over the span of nine months 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forced from their homes, stripped of their belongs and denied basic human rights (1). During World War 2, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Canadian government felt people of Japanese origin could be a threat to the Canadian war effort. Because of this, thousands of Japanese Canadian citizen’s were moved to internmentcamps in British Columbia. The internment of the Japanese Canadians was wrong because it was completely unjustified, most of the people put in the internmentcamps had a Canadian citizenship, were treated very poorly and there wasn’t any proof that they would do anything negatively effect Canada during the war. No human being should have ever been treated this way.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor Canadian racism towards Japanese citizens intensified. Although the Canadian military didn’t feel that the Japanese were a threat to them, the public believed that the Japanese citizens showed too much sympathy for Japan and were a threat to the country’s security as they could be spies (2). This common belief led to the decision of the Japanese being moved to a “safety zone” in interior British...

...paranoid of espionage from the Japanese. Because of this, President Roosevelt issued the internment of all people of Japanese ancestry to provide “national security”. Japanese- Americans were given two days to evacuate, and were forced into internmentcamps (Cooper, page 7). Japanese Americans were sent to internmentcamps because of their nationality, and had to undergo many unjust hardships. Although after the internmentcamps, they received compensation, it did not erase all the sufferings the government put them through. The internment of Japanese- Americans was truly not the best action our government took in response to the war against Japan.
The decision to evacuate and remove Japanese living on the West Coast was not based only on Pearl Harbor. The removal of Japanese was a consequence of anti-Japanese sentiment from the early part of the twentieth century (Ng, page 13). The government maintained that military necessity was the main reason behind the evacuation and internment program(Ng, page 13). Other factors that lead to the evacuation included, arms found in Japanese homes and businesses when they were searched after Pearl Harbor, concentrations of Japanese in close proximity to highly...

...JapaneseInternmentCamps
The Canadian government prides itself on upholding human rights, has its history truly reflected this image? Throughout the years 1939-1945, Canadian Interment Camps
Affected Canada's history negatively. During this time period, Japanese Canadians were showed racism, put into internmentcamps, and had to deal with terrible living conditions. After the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, the Canadian government sent the Japanese Canadians to InternmentCamps where they would no longer be seen as a threat. Firstly, the Japanese had to deal with great racism from Canadians. Being racist to the Japanese became relatively "okay" in Canada. It was not considered "bad attitude" to be racist while the Canadian government themselves were performing racist acts towards the Japanese. Canadian's felt that their actions were justified because they may have felt threatened by the Japanese Canadians; "Racist and xenophobic public sentiment felt that Japanese born Canadians showed too much sympathy for Japan." ("Internment of The Japaneseduring world war II", web) Not only did the Japanese have to face a few comments here and there, this racism kept getting worse...

...﻿Japanese-American InternmentCamps
A historical fact that is not really talked about is the fact that, during World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-American people, the vast majority of which were actually American citizens, were rounded up and shipped to internmentcamps. These consisted of poorly constructed barracks surrounded by barbed wire, sentry posts and armed guards.
It all began when Franklin D. Roosevelt gave this war message to Congress on December 8th, 1941; “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941- a date which will live in infamy- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, rumors spread, fueled by race prejudice, of a plot among Japanese-Americans to sabotage the war effort. So anyone who looked Japanese were put into these camps, not because they had done anything wrong, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and, as such, they were deemed a "threat" to national security. They were easily identifiable due to their race.
All of these people were forced to leave their businesses, their homes and, in many cases, their families as some individuals were taken elsewhere and held for years. The Japanese-Americans suffered severe economic losses, personal humiliation and, sometimes,...

...JapaneseInternment: US vs. Canada
As they were forced out of their own homes, uprooted from the land that they had contributed so dearly into making their own, the Japanese found themselves as victims of their own state—Red-flagged for espionage and sabotage in the North American states of Canada and the United States of America (US). These neighboring countries handled the same situation rather differently, and despite the many similarities between Japaneseinternment in the US and Canada during the World War II (WWII) era, there were many differences as well. The Japanese, in both cases, were discriminated against (prior to WWII), suffered property and financial losses, labored in various occupations, and were awarded reparations. Distinctions can be seen between internment of the Japanese in the US and Canada, in dealing with Japanese property and the cost to stay at these camps, the general attitude towards the Japanese, and the outcome of the Japanese in these respective countries. These internmentcamps for Japanese Americans and Canadians show racism and discrimination, as most, if not all, of these Japanese were loyal to their country.
Initially, there was already discrimination and racism occurring...

Study Tools

Company

Follow

{"hostname":"studymode.com","essaysImgCdnUrl":"\/\/images-study.netdna-ssl.com\/pi\/","useDefaultThumbs":true,"defaultThumbImgs":["\/\/stm-study.netdna-ssl.com\/stm\/images\/placeholders\/default_paper_1.png","\/\/stm-study.netdna-ssl.com\/stm\/images\/placeholders\/default_paper_2.png","\/\/stm-study.netdna-ssl.com\/stm\/images\/placeholders\/default_paper_3.png","\/\/stm-study.netdna-ssl.com\/stm\/images\/placeholders\/default_paper_4.png","\/\/stm-study.netdna-ssl.com\/stm\/images\/placeholders\/default_paper_5.png"],"thumb_default_size":"160x220","thumb_ac_size":"80x110","isPayOrJoin":false,"essayUpload":false,"site_id":1,"autoComplete":false,"isPremiumCountry":false,"userCountryCode":"US","logPixelPath":"\/\/www.smhpix.com\/pixel.gif","tracking_url":"\/\/www.smhpix.com\/pixel.gif","cookies":{"unlimitedBanner":"off"},"essay":{"essayId":36689929,"categoryName":"Organizations","categoryParentId":"10","currentPage":1,"format":"text","pageMeta":{"text":{"startPage":1,"endPage":6,"pageRange":"1-6","totalPages":6}},"access":"premium","title":"Farewell to Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Internment Camp during WWII","additionalIds":[3,17,52,9],"additional":["Business \u0026 Economy","Literature","Business \u0026 Economy\/Organizations","Entertainment"],"loadedPages":{"html":[],"text":[1,2,3,4,5,6]}},"user":null,"canonicalUrl":"http:\/\/www.studymode.com\/essays\/Farewell-To-Manzanar-Life-In-a-1305254.html","pagesPerLoad":50,"userType":"member_guest","ct":10,"ndocs":"1,500,000","pdocs":"6,000","cc":"10_PERCENT_1MO_AND_6MO","signUpUrl":"https:\/\/www.studymode.com\/signup\/","joinUrl":"https:\/\/www.studymode.com\/join","payPlanUrl":"\/checkout\/pay","upgradeUrl":"\/checkout\/upgrade","freeTrialUrl":"https:\/\/www.studymode.com\/signup\/?redirectUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.studymode.com%2Fcheckout%2Fpay%2Ffree-trial\u0026bypassPaymentPage=1","showModal":"get-access","showModalUrl":"https:\/\/www.studymode.com\/signup\/?redirectUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.studymode.com%2Fjoin","joinFreeUrl":"\/essays\/?newuser=1","siteId":1,"facebook":{"clientId":"306058689489023","version":"v2.9","language":"en_US"}}